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[[File:Leonorapiper.jpg|thumb|right|Leonora Piper]]
[[File:Leonorapiper.jpg|thumb|right|Leonora Piper]]
'''Leonora Piper''' (née Symonds, 1857–1950) was a famous [[trance]] [[Mediumship|medium]] in the area of [[Spiritualism]].<ref>''The Spiritualists, The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries'' by Ruth Brandon, Alfred A. Knopf, 1983</ref><ref>''Modern Spiritualism'' (1902) by [[Frank Podmore]] The foremost history of spiritualism. Reprinted as ''Mediums of the 19th Century, vols. 1 & 2'' University Books, 1963</ref><ref>''Search for the Soul'' by Milborne Christopher, Thomas Y. Crowell, Publishers, 1979, page 152</ref> Piper was the subject of intense interest and investigation by American and British psychic research associations during the early 20th century, most notably [[William James]] and the [[Society for Psychical Research]].<ref name="Cohen">{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/14/books/14cohe.html?ex=1159243200&en=407ccecf1b0ba924&ei=5070|title=‘Ghost Hunters’: Seeking Science in Séance|last=Cohen|first=Patricia|date=August 14, 2006|publisher=The New York Times|accessdate=8 December 2009}}</ref> She claimed to have no memory regarding her sittings.<ref name="Spiritism' 1994, page 11">''Studies in Spiritism'' by Amy Tanner, Prometheus Books, 1994, Originally published by D. Appleton, 1910, page 11 & 13</ref> [[Parapsychologist]] [[Alan Gauld]] described Piper as the first mental medium to provide "substantial evidence for the possession of some paranormal facility", while science writer and mathematician [[Martin Gardner]] dismissed her as a "clever charlatan"<ref name="IrwinWatt2007">{{cite book|author1=Harvey J. Irwin|author2=Caroline Watt|title=An Introduction to Parapsychology|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=E3EzxyOufbgC&pg=PA19|accessdate=8 April 2012|date=21 February 2007|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-3059-8|pages=19–}}</ref> and wrote two essays detailing mundane techniques she may have used to misrepresent her abilities.<ref name="Gottlieb">{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/books/review/20Gottlieb.html?_r=1&ex=1159243200&en=340d4589179fd468&ei=5070|title=Raising Spirits |last=Gottlieb|first=Anthony|date=August 20, 2006|publisher=The New York Times|accessdate=8 December 2009}}</ref><ref>''Are Universes Thicker Than Blackberries '' by Martin Gardner, W.W. Norton & Company, 2003, Chapter 30,'' How Mrs. Piper Bamboozled William James'', pages 252-262</ref><ref> Also see: ''The Night Is Large'' by Martin Gardner, St. Martin's Press, 1996, Chapter 20, ''William James and Mrs. Piper'', pages 213-243</ref>
'''Leonora Piper''' (née Symonds, 1857–1950) was a famous [[trance]] [[Mediumship|medium]] in the area of [[Spiritualism]].<ref>''The Spiritualists, The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries'' by Ruth Brandon, Alfred A. Knopf, 1983</ref><ref>''Modern Spiritualism'' (1902) by [[Frank Podmore]] The foremost history of spiritualism. Reprinted as ''Mediums of the 19th Century, vols. 1 & 2'' University Books, 1963</ref><ref>''Search for the Soul'' by Milborne Christopher, Thomas Y. Crowell, Publishers, 1979, page 152</ref> Piper was the subject of intense interest and investigation by American and British psychic research associations during the early 20th century, most notably [[William James]] and the [[Society for Psychical Research]].<ref name="Cohen">{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/14/books/14cohe.html?ex=1159243200&en=407ccecf1b0ba924&ei=5070|title=‘Ghost Hunters’: Seeking Science in Séance|last=Cohen|first=Patricia|date=August 14, 2006|publisher=The New York Times|accessdate=8 December 2009}}</ref> She claimed to have no memory regarding her sittings.<ref name="Spiritism' 1994, page 11">''Studies in Spiritism'' by Amy Tanner, Prometheus Books, 1994, Originally published by D. Appleton, 1910, page 11 & 13</ref> [[Parapsychologist]] [[Alan Gauld]] described Piper as the first mental medium to provide "substantial evidence for the possession of some paranormal facility", while science writer and mathematician [[Martin Gardner]] dismissed her as a "clever charlatan"<ref name="IrwinWatt2007">{{cite book|author1=Harvey J. Irwin|author2=Caroline Watt|title=An Introduction to Parapsychology|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=E3EzxyOufbgC&pg=PA19|accessdate=8 April 2012|date=21 February 2007|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-3059-8|pages=19–}}</ref> and wrote two essays detailing mundane techniques she may have used to misrepresent her abilities.<ref name="Gottlieb">{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/books/review/20Gottlieb.html?_r=1&ex=1159243200&en=340d4589179fd468&ei=5070|title=Raising Spirits |last=Gottlieb|first=Anthony|date=August 20, 2006|publisher=The New York Times|accessdate=8 December 2009}}</ref><ref>''Are Universes Thicker Than Blackberries '' by Martin Gardner, W.W. Norton & Company, 2003, Chapter 30,'' How Mrs. Piper Bamboozled William James'', pages 252-262</ref><ref> Also see: ''The Night Is Large'' by Martin Gardner, St. Martin's Press, 1996, Chapter 20, ''William James and Mrs. Piper'', pages 213-243</ref> But according to Tadd Ruetenik, "Gardner's position, however, requires one to believe in an extraordinary dedication to fraudulence on Piper's part". <ref>Ruetenik, Tadd. "Last Call for William James: On Pragmatism, Piper, and the Value of Psychical Research." The Pluralist, Volume 7, issue 1 (March 02, 2012), p. 73.</ref>


==Biography==
==Biography==

Revision as of 20:04, 17 April 2012

Leonora Piper

Leonora Piper (née Symonds, 1857–1950) was a famous trance medium in the area of Spiritualism.[1][2][3] Piper was the subject of intense interest and investigation by American and British psychic research associations during the early 20th century, most notably William James and the Society for Psychical Research.[4] She claimed to have no memory regarding her sittings.[5] Parapsychologist Alan Gauld described Piper as the first mental medium to provide "substantial evidence for the possession of some paranormal facility", while science writer and mathematician Martin Gardner dismissed her as a "clever charlatan"[6] and wrote two essays detailing mundane techniques she may have used to misrepresent her abilities.[7][8][9] But according to Tadd Ruetenik, "Gardner's position, however, requires one to believe in an extraordinary dedication to fraudulence on Piper's part". [10]

Biography

Piper grew up in Nashua, New Hampshire where, according to her parents, she first displayed psychic abilities as a child. At the age of 22 she married shopkeeper William Piper of Boston and settled in the city's Beacon Hill area. After the birth of her first child, Alta, she sought relief from recurring pain caused by a childhood accident. Upon visiting an elderly blind man who claimed he could contact spirits that could aid in healing, she said she heard voices that resulted in her ability to deliver a message by automatic writing to a local judge who claimed the words came from his recently deceased son.[11]

Career

Agreeing to do readings for other visitors in her home, she soon gained attention from members of the American Society for Psychical Research and later its British associate, the Society for Psychical Research. Among these were Minot Savage, Richard Hodgson, and George B. Dorr. Later psychic investigators included Oliver Lodge, Frederic William Henry Myers, James H. Hyslop, and G. Stanley Hall and his assistant Amy Tanner.[12] In 1885 soon after the death of his son, psychologist, philosopher, and SPR member William James had his first sitting with Piper at the suggestion of his mother-in-law.[11] James was soon convinced that Piper knew things she could only have discovered by supernatural means.[7] James expressed his belief that Piper's mediumistic abilities were genuine, saying, "If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, it is enough if you prove that one crow is white. My white crow is Mrs. Piper."[13] Later when Piper's readings were claimed to come from Richard Hodgson, the aforementioned psi researcher who died of heart failure that had earlier taken over the Piper case from James, James was no longer impressed and wrote, "I remain uncertain and await more facts, facts which may not point clearly to a conclusion for fifty or a hundred years."[14]

Trance medium

As with other mediums of the era, Piper claimed the use of spirit guides or "controls". Among hers was a personality referred to as G.P., who was eventually revealed to be George Pellew, a writer who had died in New York City and a friend of Richard Hodgson.[15] Another was called "Phinuit" who was purportedly a French doctor. Phinuit's French was limited to salutations like "Bonjour" and "Au revoir" and had little apparent knowledge both of the French language and medicine. According to some accounts, medical people were surprised Phinuit did not know the French or Latin names for the many remedies Piper advised for her sitters, and Phinuit's historical existence could not be verified by SPR investigations.[16] Among other spirit guides she claimed were assuming control of her were a young Indian girl named Chlorine, Martin Luther, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, Henry Longfellow, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington.[15]

Skeptical reception

Martin Gardner writes in his essays “How Mrs. Piper Bamboozled William James” and "William James and Mrs. Piper" that records of Piper's seances clearly suggest she may have feigned being unconscious and used the techniques of cold reading and "fishing", where vague statements were followed by more precise information based on how sitters reacted. Gardner reports that when Phinuit made a mistake he would claim deafness and leave, and that Piper was unable to discern between real and fictitious information given to her.[15] Skeptic Robert Todd Carroll writes that although James accepted that "spirits might be communicating" to Piper's unconscious mind, most scientists rejected the work of the Society for Psychical Research and its American counterpart.[17]

Piper made three visits to England at the request of the SPR. In subsequent years, Piper claimed her abilities would alternately cease and return, sometimes with a decade or more intervening. American psychic investigator Gardner Murphy wrote, "I had three years of sittings with Mrs. Piper in 1922 to 1925, near the end of her career. For the most part, my sittings were uneventful and lacking in the types of phenomena which characterized the zenith of her career."[18] Piper retired for good in 1927 and died on July 3, 1950.[11]

Death

Leonora Piper died on July 3, in 1950.

References

  1. ^ The Spiritualists, The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries by Ruth Brandon, Alfred A. Knopf, 1983
  2. ^ Modern Spiritualism (1902) by Frank Podmore The foremost history of spiritualism. Reprinted as Mediums of the 19th Century, vols. 1 & 2 University Books, 1963
  3. ^ Search for the Soul by Milborne Christopher, Thomas Y. Crowell, Publishers, 1979, page 152
  4. ^ Cohen, Patricia (August 14, 2006). "'Ghost Hunters': Seeking Science in Séance". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
  5. ^ Studies in Spiritism by Amy Tanner, Prometheus Books, 1994, Originally published by D. Appleton, 1910, page 11 & 13
  6. ^ Harvey J. Irwin; Caroline Watt (21 February 2007). An Introduction to Parapsychology. McFarland. pp. 19–. ISBN 978-0-7864-3059-8. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
  7. ^ a b Gottlieb, Anthony (August 20, 2006). "Raising Spirits". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
  8. ^ Are Universes Thicker Than Blackberries by Martin Gardner, W.W. Norton & Company, 2003, Chapter 30, How Mrs. Piper Bamboozled William James, pages 252-262
  9. ^ Also see: The Night Is Large by Martin Gardner, St. Martin's Press, 1996, Chapter 20, William James and Mrs. Piper, pages 213-243
  10. ^ Ruetenik, Tadd. "Last Call for William James: On Pragmatism, Piper, and the Value of Psychical Research." The Pluralist, Volume 7, issue 1 (March 02, 2012), p. 73.
  11. ^ a b c Blum, Deborah (2007). Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life. Penguin Group. p. 98. ISBN 9780143038955. Retrieved 9 December 2009.
  12. ^ Studies in Spiritism, by Amy Tanner, Prometheus Books, 1994, Originally published by D. Appleton, 1910
  13. ^ William James on Psychical Research compiled and edited by Gardner Murphy, M.D. and Robert O. Ballou, Viking Press, 1960, page 41
  14. ^ William James on Psychical Research compiled and edited by Gardner Murphy, M.D. and Robert O. Ballou, Viking Press, 1960, Chapter 4 William James and Mrs. Piper, page 209
  15. ^ a b c Gardner, Martin (2003). Are universes thicker than blackberries? “How Mrs. Piper Bamboozled William James”. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393057423. Retrieved 9 December 2009.
  16. ^ William James on Psychical Research compiled and edited by Gardner Murphy, M.D. and Robert O. Ballou, Viking Press, 1960, page 105
  17. ^ Carroll, Robert T. (April 6, 2007). "Book Review - Ghost Hunters - William James and the Hunt for Scientific Proof of Life After Death". The Skeptic's Dictionary. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  18. ^ Murphy, Gardner (1979). Challenge of psychical research: a primer of parapsychology. World Perspectives Series. Vol. Volume 26. Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313209444. {{cite book}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Text "Original from University of Virginia" ignored (help)

External links

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